Zero Turn Kill

A Zero Turn Kill, abbreviated ZTK, is one of the rarest outcomes of a Duel. To achieve a Zero Turn Kill, as per its name, a player must win the Duel without ever having a turn; this generally requires that the opponent go first and the player win during the opponent's first turn. All ZTKs require a great deal of luck, and almost always rely heavily on the opponent's actions.

Known methods to achieve a ZTK are:

Drawing all five pieces of "Exodia" in the initial draw or during the opponent's first turn

Having the opponent send three copies of "Jackpot 7" to your Graveyard during their first turn

Contents

The chance of drawing all five pieces of "Exodia" on the initial draw of five cards, assuming the player is using the minimum of 40 cards in their Deck, is 1 in 658,008.

In casual play, if the banlist were to be ignored and 3 copies of every card were allowed regardless of their status on the Forbidden and Limited lists, the chance would be about 1 in ~2,708.

Outside of the initial draw, this ZTK can also occur if the opponent activates effects that allow you to draw cards during their first turn, such as "Cup of Ace".

While ZTKs almost always require at least the opponent to start their turn, this ZTK can notably be considered the only 'true' Zero Turn Kill since it can be pulled off before either player has started their turn (thus achieving victory in a total of 0 turns for both players, not just 0 turns for the winning player).

Jackpot 7 ZTK

There are several ways for your opponent to unintentionally send 3 copies of your "Jackpot 7" to the Graveyard during their first turn, at which point the effect of "Jackpot 7" will allow you to win the Duel:

If your opponent Sets a monster like "Needle Worm" or "Morphing Jar" (OCG/TCG Traditional Format), then activates "Book of Taiyou" to flip that monster, the monster's effect can cause you to discard one or multiple copies of "Jackpot 7" from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard. This is especially probable if your opponent attempts an Empty Jar FTK.

Gorz the Emissary of Darkness ZTK

You must have "Gorz" in your hand during your opponent's first turn.

First, your opponent must play a card that causes their Life Points to be lower than yours, such as "A Hero Lives".

Next, they must activate an effect that inflicts damage equal to or greater than their Life Points but lower than yours. Using the above "A Hero Lives" as an example, they must activate an effect that inflicts at least 4000 damage but less than 8000 damage (for example, the effect of "Dice Jar"). Note that for the ZTK to work, this effect damage must be done as part of a single effect, not multiple consecutive effects akin to a Burn Deck.

At this point, you can activate the last effect of the "Gorz" in your hand to Special Summon it and inflict the same amount of damage to your opponent, thus winning the Duel before starting your turn.

Your opponent must send a "Makyura the Destructor" to your Graveyard with a card like "Dark World Dealings" during their first turn. Afterward, you can activate Trap Cards from your hand in such a way as to win the Duel:

Depending on what your opponent does during their turn, other card combinations may also be possible, although unlikely (such as activating "The Gift of Greed" should your opponent draw at least 33 cards in their first turn, which can be pulled off in certain Traditional Format FTK builds).

Your opponent must lower their own Life Points to 2000 or below, and also must cause you to discard all the cards in your hand. (One way to pull off the latter is through the effect of "Sky Scourge Norleras", perhaps combined with "Phantom of Chaos".) At this point, "Infernity Des Gunman" will be in your Graveyard.

Finally, they must activate a card or effect that inflicts effect damage. At this time, banish "Infernity Des Gunman" from your Graveyard and activate its effect. Your opponent must choose to apply its optional effect and the top card of your Deck must be a Spell or Trap Card. "Infernity Des Gunman" will inflict 2000 damage to your opponent and cause you to win the Duel.

Skipping the player's first turn

If the opponent is able to Summon "Arcana Force XXI - The World" on their first turn and successfully activate its Heads effect, then they will be able to have two or more turns before the player has started their first turn. This opens up additional ZTK possibilities:

If you are able to control a monster before your first turn (such as through the effect of "Despair from the Dark" or "Dandylion", or if the opponent uses a card like "Ojama Trio" or "Shien's Spy"), and if your opponent attacks with "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon" and chooses to apply its optional effect, then you can discard "Dimension Wanderer" from your hand to inflict 3000 damage to your opponent. If your opponent had 3000 Life Points or fewer at the time of attacking, then this will win the Duel before you start your first turn, achieving a Zero Turn Kill. (Such a situation would not normally happen without the effect of "The World", because the opponent must enter their Battle Phase, which would not normally occur before the player's first turn.)

If your opponent can pull off a World Lock to continuously skip your turns, then it is possible for you to use the effect of "Makyura the Destructor" to activate "Destiny Board", and win over the span of four of your opponent's turns while never starting your own. (Traditional Format only)